What exactly do Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) actually do? There’s no right answer, but I’ve found over the years that effective and transformational ERGs strike a balance between these three foundational components:

Building affinity

Engaging in advocacy

Learning through professional development

Building affinity is about building community and building trust within the ERG and beyond. Community and trust are essential to re-humanizing one another in our work environments and creating supportive networks. Building affinity starts with creating time to ask how someone is really doing and goes beyond that by creating intentional time and space when we connect to go deeper and learn more about one another so we can better support each other.

Engaging in advocacy is about learning to be strategic as you ask for the tools and resources staff and the ERG need to be successful. It’s about building relationships within your organization, coming up with a plan for how to ask and when to ask for what you need, and getting clear on what to ask for to best support both the group you’re specifically advocating for and/or supports that will benefit everyone.

Learning through professional development is about ensuring access to learning and development at every level within an organization. ERGs can provide opportunities for growth and development so that members gain the knowledge and skills they need for their current role and beyond. Upward mobility is an important part of both employee engagement and satisfaction and many organizations don’t regularly provide ways to learn what’s necessary for promotion. ERGs help build out professional development plans that are culturally competent and come with a budget so that the members of the ERGs can learn the skills and knowledge they need.

​​Yes! With each purchase, you can share the toolkit with up to 4 additional people. The toolkit is designed to be a collaborative document that as you gain fellow leaders you can complete the toolkit together (and each have a copy). When you need more copies, come on back or inquire for more copies

The toolkit is a Google doc designed as a workbook. Your purchase will give you a viewable copy that you can make a copy to start writing in your answers right away! You are invited to duplicate the toolkit for up to 4 additional individuals within your same organization.

Yes! This is a great starting toolkit for someone in HR to start building ERGS from the ground up at your organization. Please inquire about consulting services if you’d like help setting up ERGS within your organization

We don’t get ready to leave the house by just waiting around and hoping someday we’ll be ready to go out. Nope. We start collecting what we need to go out (the clothes we want, the shoes that are appropriate for the occasion, sunscreen, sunglasses, wallet, keys, mask, sweater, etc.). So as you look internally at your organization and want to get ready to “go outside” (i.e., start an ERG), here are questions you can pose (and start answering) to prepare for the journey:

-Asses the current size of the organization to see if there are enough employees to host ERGs. There’s not magic number but an organization with a minimum of 100 people is probably the smallest size of an org to start an ERG. If the org is smaller than 100, but you are still wanting to build affinity spaces I would consider starting with broader DEI council (doesn’t have to have that name or title).

-Internally, who (could be an individual, but preferable a team) has capacity to take on managing a new program?

-How will requests that come through ERGs be managed?

-What will be the order of operations for those requests to be heard, considered, given feedback and returned?

-How will leadership, who hears those requests, be prepared to hear feedback?

-What kind of training, consulting, or support might they need to understand and hear requests and be willing to make changes?

-Is the organization prepared to build a budget that will support the work of ERGs? The budget can be a starting place, it’s not the end all be all. It’s important for leadership to understand that they will need to devote funds to support this aspect of employee engagement, leadership, and professional development.

-Does the organization have positional leaders who are interested in and able to speak with their peers and those higher up in the organization about the role sponsors play in ERGs?

-What role will sponsors play and what will communication look like?

There are many more questions within each of these, but these are a jumping off point as you evaluate the feasibility of ERGs within your organization’s current culture.

Employee Resource Groups are both an expectation of new employees and groups that can truly support an organization in building a more inclusive workplace. ERGs do this by building community, creating a place for feedback and advocacy, and tending to the needs of employees. When I set out to create a toolkit for folks wanting to start an ERG, I wanted to share the skills and tools that not only help you build an ERG within your organization but build a transformative ERG. I want to help you build an ERG that has access to power, and meaningful relationships, and is able to influence and be a part of changing organizational culture toward greater inclusion.

So how do you know if you’re ready for this type of ERG? Take a look at this list below to see how many of these resonate with you?

-You are seeking a meaningful community at work

-You have sought mentorship but have been unsuccessful in finding strong mentors

-You have countless conversations in which you educate colleagues about fill-in-the-blank identity and are frustrated that cultural basics are often misunderstood

-You work at a place that is performative in how it engages topics of gender, sexuality, disability, race, ethnicity, veteran experiences, etc. Examples of performative diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI):

-A rainbow logo goes up for Pride month but there is little done internally to support health benefits or structural support for LGBTQ+ employees

-The organization invites a heritage month speaker for Black History Month but has never done an internal audit of pay structures to build reliable pay transparency and address pay gaps for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and women at the company

-There is a monthly newsletter that features a DEI section showcasing community events or people with fill-in-the-blank identities (e.g., famous women in STEM) without any internal-facing structures to support these identities or themes being discussed

-The organization seeks to profit off of identity groups without centering their experiences, receiving feedback from the groups, or making changes to support the groups (e.g., salary increases, roadmaps to promotions, mentorship, belonging, adequate benefits, etc.)

-The organization has written a letter or internal memo about a current event (e.g., events surrounding racism, gun violence, or the overturning of Roe v Wade), but has not committed any resources to demonstrate care for employees when it comes to their race, ethnicity, gender, safety, or health

If any of these bullet points resonate with you, you’re probably ready for a transformative ERG at your place of work.